Hosting his show, the former UKIP leader said: “The aim [of the party] was very simple, it was to take votes away from the establishment parties to force a vote in this country that would get us back our independence.”

“I made sure that UKIP talked about tough issues but we excluded anybody who had ever been part of the British National Party or the English Defence League.

“We wanted to make sure that when the abuse was thrown at us, it could not possibly be proved to be true.

“Over the course of the last few months, under this leader Gerard Batten a lot has changed and he seems to be pretty obsessed with the issue of Islam – not just Islamic extremism, but Islam.

“UKIP was not founded to be a party based on fighting a religious crusade.”

'Scuffles and violence'

Farage added that UKIP had become a party “of street activism”, not an electoral party.

“Batten has also become obsessed with this figure Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who is seen by some as a great hero standing up and fighting for working class people but who has a pretty suspect record,” he said.